Electronically Controlled Stage Lighting System

ABSTRACT

A lighting system operating using a digital mirror as its operative device. The digital mirror is used to shape the light which is a passed through advanced optical devices in order to produce an output.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of U.S. Ser. No. 13/663,616filed Oct. 30, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,036,245 issued May 19, 2015,which is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No.13/018,819 filed Feb. 1, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,300,302 issued Oct.30, 2012, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 12/652,494 filed Jan. 5,2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,880,957 issued Feb. 1, 2011, which is acontinuation to U.S. application Ser. No. 11/406,768 filed Apr. 18,2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,379,230 issued May 27, 2008, which is adivisional (and claims the benefit of priority under 35 USC 120) to U.S.application Ser. No. 10/775,721, filed Feb. 9, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No.7,230,752 issued Jun. 12, 2007, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 09/885,590, filed Jun. 19, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No.6,736,528 issued May 18, 2004, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 09/577,428, filed May 22, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No.6,622,053 issued Sep. 16, 2003, which is a divisional of U.S.application Ser. No. 08/854,353, filed May 12, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No.6,188,933 issued Feb. 13, 2001. The disclosures of the priorapplications are considered part of (and are incorporated by referencein) the disclosure of this application.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to an electronically controlled stagelighting system. More specifically, the present invention describes adigital stage lighting system operating using a digital mirror array aspart of its beam forming equipment.

BACKGROUND

Stage lighting systems have increased greatly in complexity in recentyears. The current generation of stage lighting equipment uses highlysophisticated computer based control to allow a myriad display ofprogrammable and controllable special effects.

One of the more sophisticated devices is the ICON™ device manufacturedand sold by LIGHT & SOUND DESIGN™. The ICON™ includes an extremelysophisticated console from which the countless special effects can becommanded. The console provides commands to each of the lamps in thesystem. These commands select various functions at specific times whichare preset during the planning of an event.

The ICON™ units are moving lights which can be controlled to move in atleast two directions: pan and tilt. Some applications may allow thelights to move in a third direction as well. These lights are alsoremotely controllable and programmable to allow for different lightingeffects, including color, color fade, split color, “gobo” (shape of apattern being displayed), iris, focus and others.

Moving lights such as the ICON™ are among the most sophisticated unitsin use today. However, less sophisticated, but still highly complicatedand computer controlled units also exist. An example is the WASHLIGHT™,available from LIGHT & SOUND DESIGN™. These computer controlled devicesallow a limited set of effects, but at a reduced cost.

All of these devices require consideration of complicated trade offbetween various factors which influence the final feature set. Thelights need to be small in size, quiet and rugged, to accommodate theneed for easy set up, transportation, and use. They need to berelatively inexpensive to allow many lights to be used in a show.

Even though small, the lights must be capable of outputting largeamounts of light in order to illuminate the desired scene properly. Atypical minimum light output is around 5000 lumens. The residual heatfrom such a lighting operation must be effectively dissipated to avoiddamage to the control systems.

The difficult working environment requires careful monitoring andservicing of the components. However, the market continues to demandeven more features, which will lead to even further complexity andfurther demands on the system.

The inventors of the present invention have recognized a number ofissues which plague many of these lights. A first issue regards theflexibility. Previous lights have been digitally controlled, in thesense that the control occurs from and via the main console, which istypically a computer. However, many operations use only a preset numberof effects. For example, the “gobo”, which is the device that is used toshape the light being passed, is typically a discretely-selectabledevice. One of the gobos can be used at any time; however there has beenno way to select a gobo function other than the preselected gobo shapes.Similarly, the colors were often selected from a color wheel whichallows only discrete colors.

Another problem is maintenance. The lights are transported and operatedby “roadies”, road-trained technicians whose main objective is toservice the lights. The important issue in road shows is properoperation. Therefore, the often emergency nature of such servicingresults in many of these service operations to be done by whatever meansare necessary, with minimal documentation of the changes that were made.This results in incomplete information about the servicing.

Moreover, the artists are often interested in new effects. Each neweffect adds further complexity to the system and control.

Yet another problem is that the luminaires must operate reliably.However, as described above, use of a digital light shape alteringdevice is carried out with large calculation loads. It is necessary tomaintain reliable operation in such a situation. These objectives andmany others are addressed by the present invention as described herein.

SUMMARY

A number of aspects are described according to the present invention andthe following summary summarizes many of these aspects.

A first aspect of the invention is to enable a digital control of manyaspects of the light beam. This uses a digital mirror device andconfiguration as described in our co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 08/598,077, the disclosure of which is incorporated byreference herewith. The techniques described in this applicationdescribe not only the use of the digital mirror, but also the techniqueswhich have been found by the inventors to enable its operation in thedesired way.

Another aspect of the invention is the provision of automated systemsfor determining maintenance information. These automated systems allowautomatic logging of events that have been done to the lamp.

Another aspect of the invention uses three different coloring techniquesincluding a custom color wheel, a continuous color cross fader and anRGB wheel to allow different coloring options.

Yet another aspect of the invention involves special electronics whichenable this new and sophisticated system to be used in a way thatemulates the previous systems.

Yet another aspect of the invention is the redundancy of this system.According to this aspect, special architecture is used to distribute theprocessing in a way that maximizes the available capability ofoperations, but yet minimizes the possibility of a misoperation orfailure.

Yet another aspect is the description of an advanced cooling systemwhich allows the complicated electronics to be isolated from the heatsource in a new way.

Other features of this system include the following:

An improved optical path and cooling of the components in the opticalpath.

A special lens system which allows better determination of the scene onthe stage being imaged.

A balancing element for the moving optics so that those moving optics donot upset the balance of the luminaire.

A remoted element for the digital mirror so that the digital mirror canbe properly located relative to the optical system, independent of theplacement of the control for the digital mirror.

A special technician port which allows monitoring of status and controlof individual lamps.

Special systems allowing control of color changing and cross fading.

A modular architecture with each board in the system including its owndigital signal processor.

A special calibration system for the structure on each subsystem thatmaintains the hardware of the subsystem married to the control on thesubsystem to allow more accurate control.

Use of dual color changing elements: a first color changing element atan out of focus position, a second color changing element at an in focusposition and an RGB wheel also at an out of focus position.

Use of cold mirrors to minimize heat transfer to the digital mirror.

Use of the digital hardware to emulate previous generations, includingemulation of a hardware gobo.

Special cooling system including a wall of air which is used both as aheat barrier and as a source of cool air.

Special techniques for optimized use of the digital mirror.

A special motor control bus and details of its architecture.

A supervisor automatically maintaining a registry of parts which arechanged, and important systems events, such as lamp life,overtemperatures, and other things.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

All of these aspects, and others, will be described in detail hereinwith reference to the accompanying drawings wherein

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the Medusa system;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the electronic control subsystem;

FIG. 2A shows a block diagram of a second embodiment of the electronics,showing the use of a separate processor and DSP;

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the system optics;

FIG. 3A shows a detail of the retroreflector;

FIG. 3B show details of the optical system;

FIG. 3C shows the basic layout of the optical system;

FIG. 4 shows a motor control subassembly;

FIG. 4A shows a flowchart of operation of the motor control subassembly;

FIG. 5 shows a moving balance device for a moving optical element;

FIG. 6 shows an alternative embodiment for the moving optical elementbalancing device;

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of the controller used according to thepresent invention;

FIGS. 8 and 9 are diagrams of the cooling system of the present system;

FIG. 10 shows a diagram of the wireless communication system includinghand held infra red tech port commanding device;

FIG. 10A shows a flowchart of operation of that device;

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of the operation of the master processingdevice;

FIG. 11A shows a flowchart of using the master to simulate a hardwaregobo;

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of operation of the supervisor;

FIGS. 13-15 show timing charts which show the timing of operations onthe motor control bus; and

FIG. 16 shows the remoted interface board for the DMD.

FIG. 17 shows the brightness profile of multiple overlapped beams.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a basic block diagram of the system of the presentinvention, titled the “Medusa”. All operations of the system arecontrolled by console 100. Console 100 may be an ICON™ console whichproduces commands for lighting systems as well known in the art. Console100 produces serial lighting control data over line 102. The data istransmitted to the stage lighting unit lumaire 104 as well as to otherlumaires shown as 106. There can be any number of such other lightingfixtures 106, however it is most likely that the number of such lightingfixtures be between 10 and 400. An alternative embodiment uses a DMXbased control system.

Each lighting fixture 104 includes a self-contained processing unit,including electronic, optical, cooling and mechanical subsystems asdescribed herein.

The optical subsystem carries out the primary function of producing theoptical light output in a desired form. This includes the lenses andother optical elements to form the optical output. The optical subsystemis shown and described with reference to FIG. 3.

The mechanical subsystem controls movement of various elements as partof the system. This includes, for example, pan and tilt movement of thelamp beam, beam size, color and other similar parameters. The mechanicalsubsystem is effected by the subassemblies shown in FIG. 4. Each ofthese units includes a digital signal processor (“DSP’), a motor, and aconnection to a driven element or the driven element itself.

The electronic subsystem shown in FIG. 2 carries out control of theoverall lamp unit, including receipt of commands from the consoleportions, monitoring and fault functions, and other electronicallycontrolled elements.

The cooling subsystem shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 maintains the propertemperature of the unit and especially the heat sensitive portions ofthe unit.

The lamp 104 as shown includes an optical system formed of anilluminating lamp 110 providing light to an optical pathway 112. Theoptical pathway 112 includes the light beam from light source 110. Lightis reflected by a cold mirror assembly including cold minors 114 and118. Color changing mechanism 116 is located in the fold between thecold minors 114 and 118. The light is colored by color changingmechanism 116, and is then passed to another cold mirror 118. Thereflected light is coupled to a light shaped altering device whichalters the shape of the light beam. That device is preferably a digitalmirror 120 of the type available from Texas Instruments. The digitalmirror is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,049, thedisclosure of which is herewith incorporated by reference to extentnecessary for understanding of the present invention. Use of the digitalminor is also described in our U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/598,077, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,485.

In sum, digital minor is formed of an array of pixels, each of whichrepresents a portion of light that can be selectively passed to thetarget or reflected away in some other direction. The portions of thelight are passed to different areas: first area 122 which includes alight sink to absorb the unwanted part of the light, and a second,desired area 124 which is the location for the desired light. Thedesired light is collected by focusing optics 126 and directed towardstarget 130, usually the stage.

The optical system is controlled by the controlling structure 140.Controlling structure 140 receives the serial command stream from theconsole command line 102. Other commands can alternately be input via atechnician (“tech”) command port 142.

FIG. 2 shows a more detailed diagram of the electronics subsystem.Serial data from the console is received into a dual port serialcontroller device 210. The serial data is input directly to the masterdigital signal processor (“DSP”) 212, which is preferably a TexasInstruments multimedia video processor (“MVP”) model number TMS320C80.Master DSP 212 uses SCC 210 to provide a serial outport which isconverted to RS-485 protocol by bus driver 250. This forms a motorcontrol bus 214 which controls all of the motor subsystems 220-226within the lamp.

The motor control bus is preferably an RS485 bus which controls andcommunicates with each of the motor subsystems as described herein withreference to FIGS. 13-15.

Each of the motor control subsystems 220, 222, 224 and 226 is aseparated unit including all of the hardware necessary to control itsassociated motor and other hardware according to applied commands. Themotor control subsystem includes a dedicated control structure. Forexample, a pan/tilt motor subsystem includes all controlling structurefor the motor, and the motor itself. This combination allows a modularoperation, precise matching between components, and more accuratecalibration.

Each motor controller carries out various functions in the lamp. Colorchanging controller is a motor control structure which carries outoperations to move the appropriate motors to drive the color changer forthe light. Other stepper motors 222 and 224 are provided to control themovement of movable motor devices, for example, pan and tilt motors. Thecolor motor control system 226 controls a motor to move the colorchanging element into and out of the path of the light beam.

Master DSP 212 has primary responsibility for controlling operations ofthe lamp including motor control and digital mirror. This latteroperation requires computation of complex operations to provide controlinformation for the digital mirror. At times, these calculations leavelittle time for the master to do much else.

A separate supervisor system 230 has primary responsibility formonitoring status of the lamp and making decisions based on that status.Supervisor 230 is also connected to the motor control bus. Supervisor230 is preferably a microcontroller as described herein. Themicrocontroller monitors status of the subsystems including the master.The microcontroller can also control the motor control bus when thedetermined status makes that appear it becomes desirable or necessary.

Unlike digital signal processor 212, however, the microcontroller is avery technically simple device, adapted for watching the bus andmonitoring for errors. The microcontroller carries out minimal numbercrunching; its primary function is to protect and diagnose faults. Thesupervisor also controls various other functions in the system.

The supervisor 230 monitors the output of temperature sensors 232 tomonitor and control various temperatures within the system. Supervisor230 is also connected to ballast 234 to monitor the condition andoperation of the ballast. Finally, supervisor 230 receives possibleprogram parameters from flash memory unit 236.

Light shape altering device 120 is shown as including a digital mirrorinterface 238 connected to a digital mirror device 240.

The operation of the digital mirror is controlled by master DSP 212 toform any light shape which can be described as a plurality of pixels. Alibrary of possible shapes is stored in image memory 245. These shapesare predefined. Other shapes can be dynamically obtained by framegrabber 248. The frame grabber 248 preferably receives information froma video source or some digital source, and converts those shapes to aform that can be used to alter the shape of the projected light beam.

Two different embodiments of the electronics will be described herein. Afirst embodiment uses the basic structure shown in FIG. 2. The main CPUand DSP function are the same—the Texas Instrument MVP DSP, which isprogrammable to carry out many different desired functions. Of course,other processors could be used for this function, including but notlimited to the Motorola 68000, a processor from the Intel X86 series, orany other programmable CPU.

Dual port serial communication controller 210 receives serial data 102from the console. The DSP master 212 also uses has an associated workingRAM 213 which stores the data.

The output of DSP 212 is driven by driver 250 to form the motor controlbus 214 (“MCB”) via the serial communication controller (“SCC”) 210. SCCincludes two UARTS; one of which handles incoming communication from theconsole, and the other of which produces a serial output stream. Thatoutput stream forms a motor control bus (“MCB”). Bus driver 250 producesan RS-485 output in the MCB protocol which is described with referenceto FIGS. 13-15.

SCC also provides information to the DSP 212, which receives theinformation from the console, translates the information, andappropriately outputs the information.

The serial communications device 210 can also be a dual port RAM with amailbox. In this case, the information is set into the RAM, and isflagged. The DSP 212 monitors for new data by investigating the flag todetermine whether the flag is set. Whenever the flag is set, DSP 212retrieves the new information and appropriately processes it.

The master operations are shown in further detail in the flowchart ofFIG. 11. The flowchart is shown depicted instances of operations, eachof which are preferably interrupt driven. However, the instances couldalso be sequential based on a loop operation, or driven by flagoperation.

On initial power up at step 1100, the master is booted at step 1102.This boot operation causes the program which is to be run by the masterto be transferred from flash memory into the master working RAM. Thisbegins a new routine with entry of the current time t at step 1103.

A new image/operation occurs at every interval of the refresh rate,preferably every 1/60 second. The time t is used to determine when thistime has elapsed. The master checks the flag in SCC 210 at step 1104, todetermine if any commands have been sent from the console indicatingcommunication with that lamp. If so, the command is received at step1106, and investigated to determine its contents.

Many of the commands will be lamp move/color change commands, which aresimilar to those commands that are executed in the prior art. Element1108 generically calls these movement commands, covering the non-DMDauthorizing commands. Those commands are translated by the master DSP212 into information indicative of commands that are sent to the slaveprocessing boards 220-226 over the motor control bus 214. These commandsinclude color change by cross fader, color change by dichroic colorwheel, and color change by RGB wheel, lamp move commands which can beparsed as move to position x, y, and begin either now or at time z andbe there at time t, and others. These commands are translated and placedon the motor control bus 214 to appropriately control the associatedmotors. Those commands are complete when sent—the DSP in the slave motorcontrol subassembly processes the function.

Step 1110 shows digital minor device controlling commands. Thesecommands include gobo shape, which shapes the light beam according to apredefined shape, and grab shape which shapes the light beam accordingto an acquired shape, which can be a shape which is downloaded to thelamp or an image acquired from a video source. A frame grabber, whichfeeds into the DSP, can also be used in order to form adynamically-changing spotlight shape which follows the shape of theperformer on the stage, and hence forms a shadowless follow spot.

Another DMD shape is iris, which corresponds to a superimposition of twodifferent shapes. The iris effect is simulated by commanding the digitalsignal processor to superimpose an iris shape over the basic shape beingdisplayed.

Another DMD function is the superimposition of any two different shapesor images together to form a resultant image.

Yet another DMD effect is dim. Dimming is done by either turning off acertain percentage of the DMD pixels in order to simulate a dimmer image(e.g., every other pixel), or duty cycle modulating those pixels(alternatively turning them on and off) faster than the eyes' capabilityof seeing this movement.

Another possible DMD effect is the simulation of a beam fielddistribution or profile, e.g., a cosine shaped intensity profile for thespotlight. The inventors recognized that spotlights are often overlappedwith other spotlights at their edges. The area of overlap can cause abright spot at those edges. The DMD is used to form a spotlight withedge portions that have intensities that are lower than the intensity inthe center of the beam. The rate of intensity drop off is preferably acosine function. In this way, when the two edge portions of twospotlights are placed one over the other, the overlap does not appear tobe overly bright, e.g. less than 20% as shown in FIG. 17. However, suchvariable profiles will not be desired in all situations. A variablebrightness profile will be desired in situations where multiple beamswill be overlapping at their edges. However, other effects, such asilluminating a gobo, will be better illuminated using flat intensityprofiles.

The DMD can be electronically addressed to allow electronically changingelectronically changing between these intensity profiles, albeit at thecost of loss of brightness.

Other DMD commands are described in our U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/598,077, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,485. These effects include, but arenot limited to, strobe, flower strobe and others.

The gobo effect can simulate a rotating gobo. This requires the DSP tobegin with the image at point x, and rotate the image in a specifieddirection at a specified speed. The DSP operates at each period of therefresh rate of the image, e.g., each 1/60 of a second, to calculate thenew rotated shape. That shape is used to alter the reflectivity of thepixels of the digital mirror.

In any of these cases, the DSP is instructed to form an image. In thecase of a moving image, the next image is formed during the nextcalculation cycle, e.g. 1/60 second later. Depending on the goborotating speed, the image may have incrementally changed position, ornot changed position at all.

At step 1112 the DSP operates to carry out the applied commands.

If there has been no input from the console at 1104, the signalprocessor checks at step 1120 to determine if a previously processedcommand is still in process. If so, the next processing operation, e.g.the next image calculation, is carried out at step 1122.

The master therefore assigns top priority to calculation of lighting andeffects functions. After all of these functions have been carried out,the system operation commands are detected at step 1130. At step 1132the DSP checks to determine if it has any requests from the supervisor,and if so evaluates that request. The request from the supervisor canrange from shutdown entirely to request for the master controller torelinquish control of any of the subsystems.

At step 1140 the master carries out the miscellaneous functions, whichcan include responding to requests for status, checking the status ofvarious system functions, a self check, and the like.

At step 1142 the processor waits for its next 1/60 of a secondinterval=t+ 1/60 s at which time the next image needs to be processed.

Each image, once calculated, is placed into frame buffer 213, which isfor example a dual port video memory. Placement of a new image intomemory 213 causes the previous image to be sent to the digital mirror240 via its interface 238. This hardware effects a double bufferingoperation which effectively enables the DSP to continue calculating thenext image in the sequence while the previous image is being displayed.

Notice again that the master processor is primarily concerned withcalculation of the proper parameters to allow the lighting effect to beproperly carried out. The master processor is only secondarily concernedwith system status.

There can be two separate processors operating the system—the masterprocessor and DSP. The preferred embodiment uses the MVP which carriesout the functions of both the processing and digital signal processing.

A second embodiment uses a separate processor and MVP as shown in FIG.2A. In this case the master processor is a 68000 CPU 250. CPU 250 holdsthe DSP 212 in reset until the output power is stabilized. After thepower has stabilized, the CPU 250 provides a boot sequence for the DSP212. This usually is done by moving a boot program from memory 252 tothe dual port RAM 254, setting a flag, and then releasing the DSP 212from reset. The DSP 212 boots from the dual port RAM 254 and loads thatinformation into its own memory. The DSP 212 then operates based onapplied instructions.

As described above, an important part of this system is its ability toemulate previous lamp generations. Previous systems created newgenerations of lamps which required the lighting designers to make achoice between the old lamp generation with its now-limited feature set,or the new feature set; possibly requiring reprogramming of every effectin the entire show. The latter may constitute a formidable task.

An important feature of the new system of the present invention is itsability to emulate previous lamp generations. This allows the previousprograms to be used and possibly modified to add improved features. Thesubsystems that are susceptible of emulation include at least the colorselection, gobo, iris, focus, and movement.

The digital mirror device 240 shapes the output light beam. Therefore,proper control of the digital mirror enables control to formsubstantially many different shapes.

Emulation of the previous generation of hardware gobo system requiresdetermination and use of the shapes of the hardware gobos as shown inthe flowchart of FIG. 11A. The inventors formulated this as a problem ofhow to project a relatively simple graphical picture. Each gobo in theprevious gobo set is represented by a picture at step 1142. Each pictureis translated to a graphical representation, e.g. a bitmap of the pixelarea, at 1144. That graphical representation is used to command thedigital mirror at step 1146. Therefore, each gobo in the previousgeneration gobo set is translated to a digital mirror command set thatemulates the hardware gobo.

The actual output to the digital mirror device is in a proprietaryformat specified by Texas Instruments, the manufacturer of the digitalmirror device. Texas Instruments' interface board accepts a sequence ofbinary values, each corresponding to an intensity of the pixel of theDMD. The interface board converts the sequence to its proprietaryformat.

The inventors recognized that information storage in this DMD system isa serious issue. For an image of 1280 by 1024 pixels, the image itselfis formed of 140,000.sub.HEX which equals approximately 1,310,720pixels. A 1024 pixel circle is formed by 823,550 pixels. The averageimage hence uses somewhere between 800,000 and 1.3 million pixels.Storage of such graphical pictures takes a large amount of storagespace. The files are preferably stored in some compressed form; morepreferably as a vector representation of the file. The preferred storageformats include HPGL and DXF formats. However, any format whichrepresents a shape by format which is compressed relative to bitmap ispreferred.

Projection of a stored gobo is accomplished by reading out the vectorrepresentation, converting the vector representation to a pixel basedoutput such as a bitmap (step 1144), and commanding the digital mirrorusing the bitmap file (step 1146).

The emulation technique therefore converts this information into anemulation of a hardware gobo. This hardware gobo can be exactly what isfound in the previous lamp generations such as the ICON™. Use of the RGBwheel synchronized with the digital mirror commands allows the gobos tobe projected in any desired combinations of multiple colors. However,use of the RGB wheel requires dividing the system into multiple frameportions. Hence, the image intensity will accordingly degrade.

Another issue in the DMD is caused by its lack of persistence. Since theDMD has no persistence, images cannot be formed by building up two setsof alternate lines of the image, as is frequently done in videoprojection. Accordingly, the system displays an entire image at each onetime. Double buffering is used. One image as produced is stored in VRAMwhile the next image is being calculated.

Each of these images uses on the order of a million pixels for eachimage. Hence a million pixels need to be calculated for each imageoperation.

Manipulation of the image is similarly complex. The ICON™ system uses ahardware gobo which can be rotated by motor and drive system. Thissimple operation is simulated in the Medusa by calculating each rotatedposition in FIG. 11 each interval of the refresh rate at step 1142.

The calculation of a million pixels in 1/60 of a second, for example,however, requires that a matrix multiplication be carried out in 20 ns.

The TI MVP has the capability of making those calculations in that time.However, this leaves only minimal time for monitoring the remainder ofthe system. This system uses a supervisor unit for redundant monitoringoperations so that the system is properly monitored no matter how largethe calculation load.

In contrast to the master DSP 212, the supervisor 230 is primarily asystem status determination unit. The supervisor 230 carries out anumber of functions, including primarily detecting whether the system,including the master DSP 212, is operating properly. The supervisor 230also carries out a number of secondary functions, including logging aregistry of events and faults, igniting and dousing the bulb, control ofthe fan speed, and responding to user requests for status.

A block diagram of the supervisor unit 230 is found in FIG. 7.

A first connector 710 includes various system monitoring inputs.Connector 710 receives inputs from many of the sensors which sense theparameter values in the system. This includes the temperature at themain bulb which forms the main lighting source for this system, and thetemperature at the digital mirror device. The power supply may beseparately sensed by a power supply sensor, e.g., of the I.sup.2C type.These and other inputs are multiplexed into a stream by communicationdevice 712. The information forms stream 714 which is coupled tomicrocontroller 716. The microcontroller 716 is preferably an ATMELAT89S8252.

The inputs to the controller 716 represent many of the parameters whichcan be monitored by the system.

The sensor block 710 includes those sensors known as the productionsensors. These devices will be used in all units which are eventuallymade. A second set of inputs 720 are called the development sensors.These sensors will be monitored during development but might not be usedin the actual production device. The development sensors include anumber of test temperatures at various places within the unit, includingpower supply temperature, ballast temperature, case temperature andtemperature at motors. The development sensor output 722 is multiplexedand sent to microcontroller 716.

The ballast monitoring section 730 connects directly with the ballast732, which drives lamp 734. The ballast is preferably a solid state typeelectronic switching ballast. It should be understood that theparameters shown in FIG. 7 are only exemplary. Outputs to the ballastinclude ignite and power control respectively which start the lamp andcontrol the power of the lamp. The ballast also includes parameterreturns including a parameter indicating that the lamp is lit and a lampalert indicating a problem or short in the lamp, or lamp deteriorationdue to age.

The microcontroller 716 also communicates to tech port 740. The techport allows low level communication with the lamp device. Serialinformation is received from tech port by uart and presented to themicrocontroller 716 over parallel data bus 744.

The main 10 connector 750 provides the main input and output to thedevice. A reset system allows sending a hard reset which to each of theslave processing subunits in the system. This operation enables themicrocontroller to totally reset the subassembly if proteins aredetermined.

The reset is effected without a dedicated reset line by using a timeoutoperation on the serial bus. The serial line is normally high, e.g., 5volts, to indicate an idle state. A communication is sent by bringingthe output alternately low and high. According to this system, a timeoutis caused if the output signal is low for too long a time. For example,tmax, indicating the longest time that the signal can stay in one statewithout transiting, may typically be 3 byte times, all hardwaremonitoring to communication is reset. The slave processing systems aretherefore reset by maintaining the signal low for longer than 3 bytetimes.

Inputs and outputs are also provided for various control featuresincluding pan and tilt, zoom, focus, color processing and the imageprocessing.

Input area 760 is a programming port which enables programming of theflash memory within the microcontroller 716 at manufacture or duringsoftware updates.

The watchdog supervisor unit receives a working clock of 8 MHZ for a 250Kbaud bus, element 770. A real time clock 772 is also provided. Theoperation of the supervisor maintains a registry of various events inworking memory 774.

For example, the supervisor unit tracks bulb life by storing anindication of bulb changing along with the current time stamp, each timea bulb is placed into service. Time stamps for other events are alsostored. The supervisor also keeps track of certain events, includingremoval of certain subsystems. It is presumed that these subsystems areservices when removed.

Certain changes which cannot be automatically detected, such as the timesince bulb change, are manually entered into the registry through thetech port. This information can be obtained over the programming port760 or over the tech port 740. This enables determination of the life ofvarious elements.

The information in the registry can be read by a serial device over techport. An alternative embodiment allows the information to be commandedto be displayed by the lamp itself. A lamp display command causes themessages to be converted to fonts and used to control the DMD to displaythe text as a shaped light output. This allows detecting the contents ofthe registry without a dedicated display terminal using the existingdigital light altering device as a display mechanism.

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of operation of the secondary supervisor. Itshould be understood that the processes are preferably interrupt driven.

The supervisor begins its monitoring loop at step 1200 by comparing thesensor outputs to thresholds. The various sensors which are monitoredare described above, and the thresholds can be adaptively set.

Step 1202 determines whether any of the sensor outputs are out ofpredefined limits. This detection begins an out of limit processingroutine, of which the first step 1204 enters an entry into the registryindicating the fault. The registry entry includes an indication of adate and time from the date stamp, as well as an indication of theproblem itself. The registry is preferably maintained in non volatile(“NV”) RAM so that the registry entry persists even when power is shutdown.

Step 1206 determines whether the present overlimit is critical. Acritical overlimit might be a temperature which is sufficiently high,for example, that it poses a risk of fire damage or otherwise requires ashut down of the subsystem. If the present problem is over a criticallimit at step 1206, step 1208 represents a step to obtain instructionsfor the particular subsystem being monitored. For example, if the systemmonitors a temperature of 450.degree. C. on the ballast, and this isover a critical limit, step 1208 is a step of downloading how to handleballast overtemps. Since the ballast is such a crucial part of the lamp,it may very well be that this requires shutdown of the entire lamp.Alternatively, some subsystems may allow shutdown of only that subsystemwhile maintaining the rest of the lamp. Step 1210 represents followingthe instructions which were downloaded at step 1208.

In some circumstances, it may be desirable to relay a status bit to theconsole indicating that this critical limit has been exceeded as shownin step 1212.

The processing operation of steps 1208/12010 occurs when the parameteris detected to exceed a critical limit. If step 1206 determines that theoperation is not over a critical limit, then the fault is a noncriticallimit by process of elimination. Step 1214 represents the operation ofreading the instructions that are adapted for a noncritical limit.

All of the noncritical limits are entered into the registry at 1204.Certain noncritical limits may result in; for example, modifications tooperation which may tend to allow the system to operate moreeffectively. For example, if the limit is an overtemp in the ballast,then the operation may carry out a noncritical limit instruction such asreducing the ballast output by 20% or increasing the amount of cooling.

At the completion of either of these routines, control passes to step1220 which is the watchdog routine. The watchdog routine operates as aconventional watchdog. Typically, a special line is attached to theprocessor. The processor program includes a routine for toggling thatline periodically, e.g., every 10 .mu.s. If there is no toggle withinthe preset time, then a watchdog fault is determined at step 1220. Aconventional watchdog processing routine is carried out at step 1222.This includes entering a processor fault in the registry, and thensending a hard reset to the master processor. If another processor faultoccurs within a certain time, the system may respond by sending anotherreset to the processor or by shutdown.

Step 1230 represents detection of a communication on the motor controlbus. This communication is monitored at step 1232. Any necessary actionis determined at step 1234 and is carried out at step 1236. If no actionis required, control returns to the loop.

Step 1240 represents the registry update routine. The current registryconfiguration is compared with the registry of configuration data thatis stored in the nonvolatile memory. Step 1242 determines if there havebeen any changes to this configuration. If so, information is written tothe registry including date and time of the change detected at step1244, and what change was detected. Processing returns to the loop tostep 1250 which represents the tech port communication routine.

Step 1250 indicates that a communication on the tech port has beendetected. This communication can be a command of the supervisor to carryout any of a number of functions. Step 1252 schematically representsdoing those functions.

Step 1260 represents the sending of the status to the tech port. A newparameter is sent to the tech port each 15 seconds, to allow monitoringof the parameters.

Step 1262 represents the DMD display routine. When activated, thisdisplays the contents of the registry and the most recent parameters ofthe DMD, so that the projected light is projected in the shape of theinformation to be displayed or its complement.

The overall system control of a lighting system has been typicallyaccomplished from the console. The console couples commands to each ofthe commanded lamps. An alternative communication and control scheme ismade possible by the use of tech port 231 on the supervisor. The techport is a serial I/O port which allows operation as discussed herein. Insummary, the tech port allows monitoring and control of the individuallamp via a simplified interface. As part of this monitor and control,the supervisor sends a status report to the tech port at step 1260.

The supervisor also has overall control over the operation. For example,if the temperature sensor determines that the lamp is too hot(overtemp), the lamp operation itself may be reduced or extinguished.The supervisor may hence respond by shutting off or reducing the outputof ballast 234.

The tech port communications device is preferably a wirelesscommunication system. A preferred device is a serial device 1000, e.g. adevice with a small display 1002, and an infrared communications port1004. This configuration allows the technician or other monitoringpersonnel to move from area to area with a hand held terminal. As thetechnician comes into proximity of a specific luminaire, the techniciancan monitor and control that specific luminaire.

The supervisor can be controlled itself through the tech port 231. Oneparticularly preferred embodiment provides an infrared transceiver onthe tech port which is commanded by infrared hand held tech portsupervisor 102. Preferably this uses off the shelf hardware to allowcommunication between the tech port and its tech port controllingdevice.

One use of the tech port is to allow the downloading of diagnosticinformation and troubleshooting aid information. The supervisor stores,and allows downloading via the tech port, a number of information pieceswhich can be useful in diagnosis. One important operation is the historyfrom the registry; including information about different parts of thelamp. For instance, the supervisor may determine via the FIG. 12flowchart, that the bulb has been removed. The supervisor stores a timestamp indicating that the bulb has been removed. This indicates life:how long has this device has been in service. The monitoring entity candetermine how likely it is that the bulb may need to be replaced.Another use for the tech port is actually during service. As describedabove, in this operation the supervisor assumes that if a device isremoved, it has been removed for replacement. However, there may betimes when a service technician removes the device for some otherreason. At those times, the service technician can use the tech port totell the supervisor not to reset the previous time stamp: essentially tomaintain that time stamp as it was previously.

Another operation is determination when any particular item has beenserviced, including for example the ballast and the color filters.Servicing of the color filters or the ballast leaves a time stamp in thesupervisor indicating that these items were removed at that time.

Various places in the lamp are monitored by temperature controllers asdescribed above. Those places in the lamp can be monitored through theinfrared tech port or by direct connection to a printer.

Another determination made by the supervisor is when asubassembly/subsystem card was last swapped out. The supervisormaintains a registry of the serial numbers of each card that are presentin the device. When a new card replaces an old card, the serial numberchanges. The supervisor hence can detect a serial number change todetermine that a card has been changed.

This solves a specific problem in the art. Road technicians typicallyoperate under stressful and difficult circumstances. The inventors havefound that when road technicians carry out certain operations, itbecomes difficult for them to write things down. This becomes a way torelatively easily figure out many of the things they have done, sincethe supervisor automatically maintains an indication of what has beendone.

The infrared hand held tech port can use relatively simple software suchas “hyperterminal” with an infrared port. Alternately, the tech port canuse relatively more complicated software as discussed previously whichreceives only certain messages which the terminal device needs todecode. Preferably however, the terminal is a dumb terminal that uses nosoftware at all.

Each specific subassembly has an assigned serial number between zero and2.sup.32. Each serial number is unique to a specific card.

The subassemblies also have an address. The address is set by thespecific slot in which the assembly is placed. The address is ahard-wired 8 bit number that allows communication over the motor controlbus to any device plugged into the specified slot.

A diagram of the tech port communication device is shown in FIG. 10. Theoperation of the tech port is described with reference to the flowchartof FIG. 10A. At step 1050 the device determines whether its is in rangeof a particular light. When the device comes in range, it receives thestatus information, representing the significant events which haveoccurred since the last status update. The tech port device ispreferably a dumb terminal, but the device may alternately be a palmtopor the like. This status information may be in some compressed form is amore intelligent system is used. For example, error numbers could becommunicated, and converted to textual information indicative of thetextual information.

Step 1054 represents commands being sent from the hand held tech port tothe tech port device. The commands shown in step 1054 include registryfaults and take command. Other commands could of course be alternativelyentered. At step 1056, the registry operation requests that the mostrecent entries in the registry be sent. At 1058, in response to the sendfaults command, the most recent faults are sent. At step 1060, a commandis sent to the master indicating that the supervisor wants to takecontrol of a particular lamp.

Imaging

One important flexibility of the present system is its capability toform virtually any image as its gobo outline. The system can also usemany other kinds of images.

Photographic bitmaps are formed from color images, e.g. of 256 colors.The color images are converted, using known techniques, into dataindicating chrominance and luminance of portions or pixels of theimages. The luminance (Y) values corresponding to the 256 colors arethen used to form an 8 bit gray scale. This allows photographic bitmapsto be scanned in and used as a gray scale gobo using the flowchartgenerally shown in FIG. 11A.

Other image operations which can be carried out by the digital signalprocessor include special functions. The DSP includes functions allowingoperations to focus, defocus, hard edge and soft edge. The DSP alsoallows forming multiple superimposed images.

The DSP can calculate a resultant image as a result of superimpositionof any number of images upon one another. This can form a gobo outline.

Another such superimposed image superimposes an iris image on top of theimage to simulate the operation of an iris.

Another such superimposed image is the use of multiple gobos, each ofwhich operates the image. For each of these operations, the systemrequires correspondingly more calculation power.

Another DSP operation is the frame grab operation. Selection of theanalog signal from the video grabs the frames from the applied video.Each image is then digitized and displayed.

The system of the present invention uses slave processing boards tocontrol each motor, as shown in FIG. 4. The FIG. 4 subsystem is a colorchanging system, including color crossfading discs 460 and 462. A pointwhere the two discs cross forms the optical gate 464. Each of the discshas an associated driving motor 466, 468 which drives the rotationalposition of the discs.

The color cross fader 308 preferably uses cross fading discs of the typeshown in our U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,576. These discs, in summary, havecharacteristics whereby the relative positions with respect to oneanother are changed to allow a different passband based on therelationship between the cutoff wavelengths of the two different discs.The passbands can be continuously changed to continuously change thecolor of the projected light.

The inventors have found that in practice these discs show wavelengthcutoff tolerances, which are believed to be due mostly to the dichroicdeposition process. These tolerances cause the start frequency and endfrequency to vary from disc to disc. The calibration operates bydetermining a start point, determining and end point, and finding alocation of a specified center point. This information is useful forcalibration purposes, since it compares the specific operation of thediscs with the other discs.

For example, a dichroic coating which begins at a pass frequency of 350nm has a normal coated tolerance which can vary from between 340 and 360nm, for example. The linearity for any disc is consistent over the disc.However, the absolute calibration of the disc is not consistent betweendifferent products.

The discs are calibrated using spectral measurement equipment. Each discis carefully calibrated. Its values, i.e., position of the disc relativeto passband of the position on the disc, is stored in the associatedmemory 470 that is associated with the card. Therefore, each colorfilter is associated with a stepper motor which is controlled by thecalibrated information.

A command operation is illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 4A. Acommand for a certain color combination is made as command 480. Thiscommand is translated by the internal DSP 472 into a pair of pass bandsfor the long and short color wheels 460, 462. This command is thereforetranslated into a desired long passband value and a desired shortpassband value.

The memory 470 stores a transfer function that represents a calibratedrelationship between the position of the wheels and the passbands. Thetransfer function can include a variable that acts as a multiplier forscaling the specific disc to a theoretical “ideal” disc. The on-assemblyDSP scales each disc according to the variable, so that each discoperates in the same way.

These advantages are obtained by maintaining all motors on or associatedwith a dedicated assembly as shown in FIG. 4. This allows the controllerin each card to be is preselected with a calibration value that tellsthat controller the exact value of the color device on its value. Thecards stay and are maintained with the assembly. Therefore, each cardcan command exact color values. A command, therefore, for 350 nm can beadjusted by the calibration to command 350 nm more exactly.

A similar calibration operation is used to maintain the accuracy of anyother moving structure.

As described previously, the system preferably includes an RGB wheel 310that can be moved in and out of the path of the light beam. The purposeof the RGB wheel is to enable the images to be displayed in full ormulti color.

The inventors recognized that many effects or images can be carried outwithout this multi color. Moreover, using this RGB wheel also has acost: it sacrifices a large percentage of the brightness because of theduty cycle between the three colors. The inventors realized that itwould be desirable if there was a mechanism for operating the devicewithout the RGB wheel when monochrome images were displayed. This iseffected by moving the entire RGB wheel in and out of the beam of thelamp.

The movement operation of this embodiment is made more rapid bybalancing of the weight of the RGB wheel against some other structurewhich is correspondingly moved.

The movement operation of this embodiment is made easier to achieve andcontrol by balancing the with of the RGB wheel against some otherstructure which is correspondingly moved.

A first embodiment of the balance system is shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 5omits the drawing of the mounting bracket. The RGB glass segmentassembly 510 is shown. This includes two, half size red glass segments,a green glass segment and a blue glass segment. The entire device isrotated by a continuous RGB motor 500.

The path of the light beam is shown by optical path 502 whichcorresponds to the location where the light beam travels through thefilters.

The RGB assembly is shown in its outer position in FIG. 5 with the RGBdevice positioned outside of the optical path. In this position, the RGBassembly has no effect on the projected light. The RGB assembly shown inFIG. 5 can be moved into the optical path by pivoting relative to pivotpoint 504 along the arrow shown as 506.

The pivoting operation is carried out by using a motor 510 which ispositioned to act as a counterbalance to the RGB wheel and synchronousmotor. The motor includes a driving element 512, e.g., a gear, whichpositively engages with fixed non-rotatable driving element 514, e.g.another gear, to move the assembly. Alternatively, driving elements 512and 514, could be pulleys which positively engage each other by means ofan appropriate drive belt or similar. This causes the motor to travelaround the driving element.

In operation, the RGB motor is moved from a neutral position shown inFIG. 5 to a light altering position where the optical gate is at thelocation 508 shown in FIG. 5. The motor 510 is rotated to move thedriving element 512 and correspondingly rotate around the fixed, nonrotatable driving element 514. This rotates the entire assembly suchthat the top portion 530 is moved to the right in FIG. 5 while thebottom portion 540 is moved to the left in FIG. 5. The motor 510 islocated within the assembly such that the movement of the motor 510substantially precisely counter-balances the RGB wheel and motor. Thiscounter-balance operation enable the RGB assembly to be rapidly movedwithout being affected by the spatial orientation of the overallfixture.

A second embodiment of this operation is shown in FIG. 6. This secondembodiment of the balancing element is optimized for use in moving alens system. The lens 600 is positioned within the optical path 602.Lens 600 is positioned on linear bearing 604 to move in a directionsubstantially parallel to the optical path. Movement of the lens eitherin the forward or in the reverse direction, however, can change thebalance of the lighting fixture, thereby effecting the overallperformance of pan and tilt functions. The inventors recognized thedesirability to maintain overall balance of the fixture regardless ofthe lens positions within the fixture, thereby maintaining consistentperformance of pan and tilt functions.

A driving motor 610 is also mounted on a linear bearing 612. Linearbearing 612 is substantially parallel to the linear bearing 604. Thedriving motor is attached to a fixed, non movable length of belt 614which is substantially parallel to linear 612. Belt 612 includes teethwhich positively engage with the corresponding teeth on the motorpulley. The motor is also attached to a wire loop 613, which wrapsaround idler pulleys 625, and connects to lens mount 601.

In operation, the lens and motor move in reverse synchronization witheach other. Since the belt 614 is fixed, movement of the motor moves themotor relative to the belt. The wire is attached to the motor, so thatmovement of the motor pulls the lens mount 601 in proportion to theamount of motor movement. Hence, when the motor moves in the direction Bshown in FIG. 6, the lens correspondingly moves in the direction A shownin FIG. 6. This maintains a constant center of gravity between the motorand the lens.

An alternative embodiment uses either two separate pulleys or a twostage pulley on the motor. The two pulleys or stages having differentnumbers of teeth to each other. One pulley or stage engages with a fixednon-movable belt to move the motor along the linear bearing as describedin the previous embodiment. The other pulley or stage positively engageswith a continuous toothed belt loop which essentially replaces the wireloop as described in the previous embodiment. The continuous belt loopis fixed to only the lens mount so that as the motor rotates andconsequently moves along the linear bearing to which it is mounted. Thelens moves proportionally an in a direction relative to the motor,according to the ratio between the number of teeth on the two pulleys orpulley stages on the motor.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the motor is selected to be thesame weight as the lens. This can also be operated by choosing a lightermotor and adding appropriate weights to the motor to exactlycounter-balance the motor relative to the lens, or if the chosen motoris heavier than the lens, adding weights to the lens mount to achievethe same. Since the same amount of weight is moved in opposingdirections, the motor and lens balancing is the same in any position.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram including further detail of the systemoptics. The system uses a segmented retroreflector with a 1,200 watt arcbulb. The segmented retroreflector is a design of Radiant Imaging, Inc.

The segmented retroreflector 302 is shown in further detail in FIG. 3A.The device uses an almost elliptical cold mirror reflector 350, alongwith a special reflecting portion 304 including a series ofretroreflectors which send a portion of the light back into the arc.

This allows different handling of the three different light directionsthat are output from the bulb 300. A first light, 352, is output towardthe target, and is allowed to pass unobstructed. A second light, such as354, is produced in the reverse direction, facing away from the target.This light is reflected by the cold mirror reflector 350, toward thefocal point of the ellipse and against cold minor 306. A third light,such as 356, is reflected to retroreflectors 302. Each retroreflector302 is a section of a sphere that reflects the light impinging on thatsection back to the position of the arc lamp, through the position ofthe arc lamp, to the elliptical reflector 350 and focused back to thefocal point.

A particularly important part of this invention is its heat handling.This is done by a special combination of heat altering elements whichremove much of the heat before the light passes to the heat sensitiveportions of the system, including the digital mirror 240.

FIG. 3B shows an alternative view of the system optics. Retroreflectorassembly 302 is shown with its cold reflector and retroreflectors. Theoutput passes to cold mirror 306 which passes most of the infraredportion of the light, and reflects most of the visible portion.

This first filtered light is then passed to a special color cross fadersystem 308. The color cross fader used herein preferably is of the typedescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,576. This device can be used to changethe color of the light.

A movable red/green/blue (“RGB”) rotating color wheel 310 is alsolocated in series with the color cross fader 308. The pixel by pixelchange of the digital minor can be synchronized by TI's digital minordriving electronics to the movement of the RGB wheel to form amulti-color image. As described above, the attenuation caused by thecolor wheel 310 causes an associated amount of light reduction.Therefore, when a monochrome image is being displayed, the inventorsrecognized that it would be desirable to operate the lighting unitwithout the associated attenuation caused by the RGB wheel.

The thus filtered and colored light is again reflected by a minorassembly 312. The assembly can include illumination relay 311 and 313,as shown in FIG. 3B.

The color devices 308 and 310 are between the mirrors 306 and 312. Thisarea is preferably an out-of-focus area, so that the color ishomogenized.

The inventors realized that the digital mirror device has an aspectratio of 1024:1280.about.1.2—that is its length and height are not thesame.

A third color wheel system 316 is provided at a secondary focusedlocation 314 which forms a second image plane. This third color wheelsystem is a rotatable color filter with discrete color filters. Thosefilters can be similar to the type currently used in the ICON™ lightingdevice. The use of this third color wheel enables the Medusa system toemulate the color operation of the ICON™ system, as well as to allowadditional features.

The third color wheel system allows the user to select among 8 discretefilter elements to be placed on a wheel. The designer can choose which,if any, are desired. A split color effect can be obtained by allowinghalf of each of two filters in the light beam. The wheel can alsoinclude glass elements such as frosted glass or prismatic glass.

One technique to make further use of this aspect ration uses Mirror 312which is preferably elliptical in shape and not circular. The largersize DMD device, which is desired to be used in this application. Theellipsoidal reflector allows the light beam to be altered in shape tomatch this aspect ratio and hence use the resolution of the digitalmirror more effectively. The optics are more preferably used with acombination elliptical and circular mirror to provide a variablebrightness output beam. The inventors recognized that many timesmultiple output beams are used on the stage. The multiple substantiallycircular beams are projected side by side with a slight overlap betweenthe two. A problem noticed by the inventors is that the light typicallyadds at the overlap portion, thereby causing excess brightness at theoverlap portion.

Three different color wheels are provided optically in series—the colorcross fader 308 is located at unfocused location 307 and the ICON™ colorwheel 316 is located at focused location 314. Any of the three coloraltering devices includes a clear location which can be selected, andthrough which the light will pass unchanged in color. This allows any orall of the color altering devices to be inactive so that light beamcolor can be selected by one color changes, both color changes orneither color changes.

For example, color cross fader 308 can be set to clear, allowing coloraltering operation can be done via the ICON™ color wheel 316. Thisenables lighting programs that were previously written for the ICON™system to operate the Medusa system without modification.

The light passing the color wheel is slightly out of focus since thefocus point is at the color wheel. That light is refracted by a“doublet” lens 318, positioned close to the DMD 240, toward the DMD 240.The light is reflected off of the DMD 240, back through the doublet 318.

The reflected light from the DMD 240 is coupled to a relay lens system320 which effectively extends the focal length of the system. Anotherfolded cold mirror 322 reflects the light to another relay lens 324.Light is finally output by a programmable zoom projection system 326.

The inventors also realized that improved operation of the DMD for astage lighting device is obtained when the light is coupled to the DMDwith the proper angle of acceptance. The inventors found that the DMDoperates best when the light is input with an angle of acceptancelimited to around 28.degree., more preferably with less than 20.degree.

The operation of this system preferably emulates straight projectionoptics, with the relay lens forming a 2.times. multiplier.

Issues with Shadowless Followspot

One important feature of the present invention is its ability to operateas a shadowless followspot. The basic characteristics of this featureare described in our co-pending application, U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 08/598,077, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,485,

The inventors of the present invention have realized, however, a numberof issues surrounding accuracy of the shadowless followspot. Oneimportant issue, also recognized in the application Ser. No. 08/598,077,is the accuracy that would be obtained by operation with zero parallax.

A first embodiment of the minimized parallax system uses the basiclayout shown in FIG. 3C. A small prism 330 is placed at an opticallyinsensitive location between the relay lens system 320 and the zoom lenssystem 326. The prism 330 reflects a portion of the incoming light in asecond direction 332. A CCD camera 334 is located in the path of thereflected information to receive that reflected information via afocusing lens 333. Proper placement of the prism in this location allowsthe prism to reflect light that has a same field of view as itsprojected. after the zoom of the prism allows the CCD camera to receiveprecisely the information that is in line with the spotlight andincluding the same field of view as the spotlight. This allows thatcamera to receive precisely what the DMD will project, hence reducingparallax to an almost nonexistent value.

An important part of the processing of the present invention is carriedout by the Texas Instruments DMD interface board. This board includesthe DMD device and its associated processing structure. The board islaid out and operated using proprietary TI techniques. TI has indicatedthat vendors should use the board for their controlling operation. Theboard includes the sensitive DMD mounting as part of the board.

However, the inventors noticed a problem with using this board in aluminaire. Specifically, the inventors found that the relatively largesize of the board made it difficult to fit properly at an effectivelocation within the luminaire device. The DMD position would beundesirably dictated by the positioning of the board. The inventorsrecognized a need to control the DMD from a location remote from theboard, so that the optical position of the DMD device is totallyseparate from the position of the electrical interface board. Thisallows proper placement of the DMD, taking into account the coolingrequirements and optimal angle of approach.

According to the present invention, the inventors used a separateinterface board for the DMD alone which has the effect of remoting theDMD relative to its interface circuitry. A cross section of thisassembly is shown in FIG. 16. The DMD 1600 is shown with bottomelectrical contacts 1602. These contacts are usually carefully mated tothe corresponding contacts on the circuit board. However, the system ofthe present invention uses an elastomeric interface device 1604 to matebetween the DMD and a remote card 1600. The inventors found that the useof the elastomeric interface devices facilitates the otherwise difficultDMD mounting.

The overall colorizing system previously described includes three parts.A first part is the color cross fading discs 308. These color crossfaders 308 are continuously varying devices. They are best used at apoint that is out of focus so that the light can homogenize the colorthereof.

The RBG wheel is also used at the out of focus location.

The discrete color wheel 316 is also used as part of the Medusa system.The discrete color wheel 316 includes a plurality of single colorfilters and is preferably located at the focused point relative to theDMD 240.

One of the important effects capable of being carried out by the ICON™is the use of two split colors within the beam. The ICON™ color wheelincludes a plurality of discrete dichroic filters positioned around acentral hub. The interface between the two discrete colors is placed atthe center of the light beam in order to obtain this effect. This splitsthe two colors across the beam and provides a focused split color beam.

Since an important aspect of this new system is the ability to emulateprevious generations of luminaires, the use of both in focus and out offocus color wheels enables a maximum number of possible emulations.

The Medusa system includes advanced heat reduction mechanisms to improvethe heat handling capability. The production of sufficient light toilluminate the DMD at stage lighting levels, e.g., >5000 lumens, entailsan associated production of huge amounts of heat. As described above, afolded cold mirror system is located optically upstream of the DMD tominimize the amount of heat coupled by the light beam towards thedigital mirror. An additional cooling aspect of the present inventionuses a wall of air concept to separate and thermally isolate variouscritical elements from other hot portions of the system. The foldedoptical directs the light beam around the wall of air.

A block diagram of the cooling system is shown in FIG. 8. The lamp andits reflector are the hottest part of the cooling system. Hence most ofthe heat from the system is in the area generally shown as hot spot 800in FIG. 8. The output from the lamp is coupled to folded cold mirrors towhich pass the heat, instead of coupling that heat toward the othercomponents of the system. However, this still results in a hot spot nearthe heat producing elements which produce the largest amount of heat.

According to this aspect, a plurality of fans shown as 802, 804 and 806are mounted in a location that surrounds at least a portion of theperiphery of the hot spot. The fans are located and operate to push awall of relatively cool air into the plane defined by the fans. The wallof air is preferably between the DMD and the heat produced by the hotspot. In addition, although not shown, there may also be a firewallseparating the bulb and reflector assembly from other areas to furtherisolate much of the heat from the hot spot.

Conceptually the wall of air is shown relative to the DMD and lamp inFIG. 9. FIG. 9 represents a view looking from the side portion in FIG.8. That side portion shows the end on view of the reflector and thelight following the curved light path to the DMD. The wall of air 900between the reflector, representing the hot spot, and the DMD andeffectively isolates the heat between the two.

A particularly preferred embodiment uses the folded mirror system todirect the light path around the wall of air thus formed. If the lightwere passed through the air, the light could be distorted by the heatand the like. The light is formed into a folded path that is directedaround the wall to isolate the optical structures from the hot spot.

In addition, the wall of air is conceptually a source of cool air forsupplying the rest of the system. Many of the items such as the colorwheel shown in FIG. 9 and electronic assemblies, require a source ofcool air. In this cooling embodiment, the cool air is obtained byplacing a pick off fan shown as 902 into the cool air and sucking off aportion of that cool air from the wall. Pick off fan 902 couples thecool air to the color wheel area that requires it. Accordingly, the wallof cool air forms essentially a ductless shaft, from which cool air canbe appropriately supplied to those things that require the cooling.

Accordingly, the wall of cool air forms essentially a ductless shaft ofair, from which cool air can be appropriately supplied to those thingsthat require it.

As a general idea, 20-30 cubic feet per minute over 30 square incheswill provide the necessary amount of air to maintain the wall.

Motor Control Bus

The motor control bus (“MCB”) is formed by an RS 485 multi-drop balancedtwo wire line driver 250, preferably the SN75176, supplied with OV and+5V.

Data Format.

Each byte transferred on the MCB includes:

1 Start bit

8 Data bits

1 Intel address bit (1 signifies the byte is an address, 0 that it isnot)

2 Stop bits

The data is preferably 250 kbaud, giving a bit time of 4 .mu.s. A singlebyte is therefore 48 .mu.s long.

Bus

The TMS320C80 DSP acts as the master, sending a packet to the functiondrive pcb's every 1 ms. Each transaction has two phases: a master phase,and a supervisor phase. The master phase sets up the address of thefunction to be communicated. The supervisor phase allows the supervisorto determine status and updates the user parameter RAM.

Data Packet Specification.

The timing diagrams for the data transactions on the MCB are included asFIGS. 13, 14 and 15.

The master first sends the address of the function that needs to becommunicated. This is followed by a command byte. If the command is awrite command, it is followed 4 data bytes that depend on the actualcommand that is sent. If the command is a read command, the mastercommand the bus into high impedance state, after sending the command toallow the addressed function to reply. This reply shall start beingtransmitted a maximum of 50 .mu.s from the receipt of the command byte.

The supervisor continually receives all data packets present on the bus.The state of an address type in recognized from the state of the Inteladdress bit. The responds by starting a timer 350 .mu.s timer. Thesupervisor can assume that the master phase is complete after the 350.mu.s is over, and this starts the supervisor phase.

The supervisor phase begins by sending a command byte to the addressedfunction drive PCB. The command byte is followed by 2 data bytes thathave a meaning dependent on the actual command byte.

The addressed function drive PCB replies with a status byte, that isfollowed by 2 data bytes that represent the command byte that is sent.

If the 'c80 master is writing to the addressed function drive PCB thecommand byte will be followed by up to 4 data bytes, the meaning ofwhich will depend on the particular write command used. If thesupervisor has requested the control of one particular function, thenthe 'c80 master will only transmit the address and null command bytesand leave the bus in a high impedance state to allow the supervisor tosend the data part of the packet during the rest of the 1 mS time slot.

b. Read, recognized by having bit 7 set. (i.e. e.>=128)

If the 'c80 master is reading from the addressed function drive PCB itwill disable the transmitter after sending the command byte to put thebus into a high impedance state to allow the addressed function drivePCB to transmit its reply to the 'c80 master. This reply startstransmitting a maximum of 50 .mu.s from the receipt of the command byte.

The supervisor has an address in the same way as the function drives,and will be addressed by the 'c80 master at the start of one of the 1 mstime slots. The command byte sent by the 'c80 master could be a requestfor status from the supervisor. In this case the supervisor returns astatus byte followed by 2 data bytes. This reply starts beingtransmitted a maximum of 50 .mu.s from the receipt of the command byte.The data bytes may contain a message to the 'c80 master that thesupervisor wishes to obtain control of one or more of the functionmotors.

The supervisor returns control to the master by sending an appropriatestatus byte without the Intel address bit being set.

If the supervisor has requested control of a particular function, themaster responds with a null command following the address of thefunction to be controlled, and a command to place the bus into its highimpedance state. The supervisor recognizes the high impedance state, andresponds with a command and data bytes to control the function. Theformat of the packet as sent is the same as the one that the masterwould have sent.

The supervisor sends the supervisor command and 2 data bytes. Totalcontrol can be commanded in an analogous way.

The status byte shall be a bit field, with the following flags:

-   TABLE-US-00001 Bit Flag Meaning 0 Range error Motor is at end of    travel and cannot move the requested position 1 Not ready During    reset of function 2 Date error Over-run, framing, address received    at wrong time 3 Data error Non resetable failure 4 Over current    Motor winding current too high 5 o/t motor Motor too hot 6 o/t    heat/s Heatsink too hot

Parameters Stored in Parameter RAM.

The parameters of the individual function drive pcbs are stored in anon-volatile random access memory in an address space that is “off-chip”so they can be changed by the function DSP controlled via the MCB.

The Stored Parameters Include:

-   TABLE-US-00002 Reset mode (center zero cw or ccw; left or right    zero) Reset sensor (optical/hall or end stop) Rotation allowed    (continuous or end stops) PCB Serial No. Assy Serial No. Address of    sub-assy Software version No. Steps of available travel    Micro-stepping current profile, or equation of % harmonics Movement    profile

Byte Definitions

Address

This includes the address of the function being addressed during the 1ms time slice, and uses the Intel address bit set to signify that it isan address byte. The addresses are assigned as follows:

-   TABLE-US-00003 Function Address Description 00h Master 01h Pan 02h    Tilt 03h RGB in/out 04h Shutter 05h Color A (long pass) 06h Color B    (short pass) 07h Color C (split color/designer) 08h Zoom 09h Focus    0Ah-OEh Reserved for future options Ofh Superior 10h-FFh Reserved

Command

The command byte is either a read byte, which requires the addressedfunction to reply with the information specified in the command, or awrite byte, which allows the transmitting device to transfer someinformation to the addressed function.

-   TABLE-US-00004 Write Commands (ms bit clear) Value Command From To    00h Null M/S S/F 01h-0Fh Motion Profile 1-16 M/S F 10h Following is    master M S status 11h Return control to S M master 20h Ignite arc M    S 25h Dowse arc M S 70h EEPROM addr and data S F follows 71h RAM adr    and data S F follows 7Dh Reset function card S F 7Eh Stop program    until go S F 7Fh Go, begin code at addr S F-   TABLE-US-00005 Read Commands (ms bit set) Value Command From To 80    Null 81 Send last 4 data bytes M/S F rx 82 Send current position M/S    F 83 Send supervisor status 91 Send current function S F status    92-95h Send param byte 1-4 S F 95 Send EEPROM data byte S F 96 Send    RAM data byte S F 97 Send ROM byte S F

Motor Status

The motor status is returned by a function after it has been addressedby the master and received a command byte from the supervisor.

-   TABLE-US-00006 Bit Flag Meaning 0 Range error Motor is at end of    travel and cannot move the requested position 1 Not ready During    reset of function 2 Date error Over-run, framing, address received    at wrong time 3 Fatal error Non resetable failure 4 Over current    Motor winding current too high 5 o/t motor Motor too hot 6 o/t    heat/s Heatsink too hot 7 reserved

Supervisor Status

The supervisor status is returned by the supervisor after it has beenaddressed by the master.

-   TABLE-US-00007 Value Meaning 00h Null FCh Request control of    following function to master FDh Request control of following    function FEh Request control of all functions FFh Reserved

Position Data

All position data is preferably 16 bits with the most significant bytebeing transmitted first.

In cases where the data is derived from an 8 bit user value, the 8 leastsignificant bits (“lsbs”) of the 16 bit number will be zero.

Each function drive will have 1 of 4 reset mode parameters stored in theparameter RAM, and the position data sent to the drive is relative tothis mode:

-   TABLE-US-00008 Reset Mode Meaning of position data center zero cw or    ccw 000h shall be the center reset position 7FFFh shall be the    maximum position, either cw or ccw 8FFFh shall be the minimum    position, either cw or ccw left zero or right 000h shall be the left    or right zero position 7FFFh shall be the center position FFFh shall    be the right or left position

Timing Data

The most significant byte is transmitted first.

All positive numbers shall be movement times in 1/60 s of a second,giving a time range of between 0 and 9 minutes 6 seconds. All negativenumbers are the 1's complement of movement time in seconds, giving atime range of between 0 and 9 hours and 6 minutes.

For example:

003 is a 1 second move

5B68h is a 6 minute 30 second move

9C4Fh is a 7 hour 5 minute 20 second move

In summary, each message on the motor control bus includes an address ofthe motor, a command by indicating for example a profile of theoperation such as trapezoidal or sinusoidal, and four data bytesincluding the end position, the time to reach it and the like. Thesystem preferably talks to one piece of information each onemillisecond.

Each byte on the motor control bus includes an extra bit. That extra bitindicates whether the address bit is or is not using the Intel protocol.The system used according to this invention is preferably a fail safetype system. A command is sent indicating an address of the motor beingcontrolled. The end of this address starts a timer looking for a value.That timers preferably 350 ms, and the end of that timer indicates thatthe command signal is over. The process follows the flowchart ofcommand-delay-motor replies with status. The status can includeovertemps, motor not ready and data indicative of the motor. Each timethe motor is commanded, a command can also be sent to the motor. Themaster 212 monitors the motor position, since the master 212 calculatesother motor positions based on the current motor position. Thesupervisor 230, on the other hand, only cares about motor status such asovertemp and the like. The supervisor recognizes every address andmaintains information indicating every address. If the master address isthe supervisor, the rest becomes a message. Importantly, since thesupervisor is simple electronics, it can still diagnose faults even oncethe digital signal processor is no longer capable of operation.

Another operation occurring via the supervisor is asking the DSP 212 forcontrol of a certain slave. The master DSP 212 responds by sending thenext response with the address of the motor and a blank following theaddress. The supervisor 230 recognizes this following blank and sendsthe whole command which it desires to send. This allows the supervisorto control one of the cards via that port.

The supervisor 230 can also take control of the entire bus 214. This isdone by an appropriate command to the master 212, forcing the master toturn off or reach its high impendence state. At that point thesupervisor carries out all of the commanding. The motors don't know orcare who is doing the commanding, however the supervisor 230 with itslimited electronics capability is not capable of carrying outcomplicated motor control functions.

The information can be downloaded to the multi-parameter lightingfixture in one of different ways. Preferably, a library of gobo imagesis maintained in some compressed format. The format can be a compressedbitmap such as JPEG image, but more preferably is a vectorized typeimage indicating a mathematical description or geometrical descriptionsuch as so called EPS file. The information is used to define the edgeof the image that is produced, and can be allowed to ignore everythinginside the edge. It can be used for a video source, a shadowless followspot, a gobo image either standard or custom, external video, stillimages, effects such as edge sharping, rotation, pointillism, or crossfade between video feeds.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: creating and modifyinglight, along an optical axis train using a first optical element; thecreating and modifying comprising controlling characteristics of thelight using a digitally controllable element based on a command fordigital control of the light that will be created as part of thecreating and modifying, responsively altering the light created by thedigitally controllable element responsive to the command; controllingmodification of the light that has been altered by the digitallycontrollable element; and receiving optical information associated withthe digitally controllable element, and producing an output indicativethereof that is used as part of control of the digitally controllableelement.
 2. A method as in claim 1, wherein the creating and modifyingcomprises controlling a coloring of the light.
 3. A method as in claim2, further comprising receiving light from a position to receivesubstantially exactly what the digitally controllable element will passas light.
 4. A method as in claim 3, wherein the receiving comprisesusing a prism for directing light to be received.
 5. A method as inclaim 3, further comprising using the optical information to reduceparallax within the system.
 6. A method as in claim 2, wherein thedigitally controllable element includes a DMD.
 7. A method as in claim2, wherein the controlling modification comprises using a relay lenswithin an optical train of the system.
 8. A method as in claim 7,further comprising reducing an amount of heat within the light withinthe relay lens.
 9. A lighting apparatus, comprising: a digital lightsource, creating light along an optical axis train, the digital lightsource being controllable to control modification of the light along thelight axis train and including a digitally controllable element whichcontrols the light based on a command for digital control of the lightby the digitally controllable element, and responsively creating amodified light; and a controller that controls the modification of thelight by the digitally controllable element, the controller receivingoptical information associated with the digitally controllable element,and producing an output indicative thereof that is used as part ofcontrol of the digitally controllable element.
 10. An apparatus as inclaim 9, wherein the lighting apparatus includes a color controllingdevice.
 11. An apparatus as in claim 9, further comprising a lightreceiver, which receives light from a position to receive a sample ofsubstantially exactly what the digitally controllable element willcreate as light.
 12. An apparatus as in claim 9, wherein the lightreceiver comprises a prism.
 13. An apparatus as in claim 9, wherein thedigitally controllable element includes a DMD.
 14. An apparatus as inclaim 9, further comprising a relay lens within an optical train of thesystem.
 15. An apparatus as in claim 14, further comprising a cooler,reducing an amount of heat within the light within the relay lens.
 16. Alighting control apparatus, comprising: a controller that controls andoutput of a remote light source, that creates light, and controls afirst optical element, controlling modification of the light; andcontrols a digitally controllable element which is located along theoptical axis train and that controls the light based on a command fordigital control of the light passed by the digitally controllableelement, and the controller that responsively alters the light receivedby the digitally controllable element responsive to the command; and thecontroller that controls modification of the light that has been alteredby the digitally controllable element, the controller receiving opticalinformation associated with the digitally controllable element, andproducing an output indicative thereof that is used as part of controlof the digitally controllable element.
 17. An apparatus as in claim 16,further comprising a light receiver, which receives light from aposition to receive a sample of substantially exactly what the digitallycontrollable element will pass as light.
 18. An apparatus as in claim16, wherein the digitally controllable element is a DMD.